Verbing Weirds Language only if you're expecting it to work in a simple way. This is a special case of the more general truth that Language Weirds.

Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.

The church says Earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence in a shadow than the church.

If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Still Non-Resident!

The movie Om Kapoor, Shahrukh Khan's character - OK they call him, a typical Bollywood nickname and obviously a play on Khan's own SRK - wins the Filmfare award for Best Actor in the reincarnation romance and revenge film Om Shanti Om is called Phir Bhi Dil Hai NRI (Yet the Heart is Still Emigrant (Non-Resident Indian)), which plays on Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, a political drama about a reporter gaining ideals. I'm not sure what the "NRI" version would be like, but probably very funny.

His other nominated film (yes, OK has two nominations for the same year, it's that kind of over-the-top playful tribute to Bollywood on top of the plot) is Main Bhi Hoon Na (I'm Also Still Here) which plays off Main Hoon Na (I'm Still Here), director Farah Khan's first film and also the first film for SRK's production company, Red Chilies Entertainment, which produced Om Shanti Om. In another funny bit, both film clips have OK delivering the line "Rahul, naam to sona hoga? (I'm Rahul - have you heard that name?)" which is a line from Dil To Pagal Hai, one of SRK's earliest great movies (and funny because Rahul is the name of several of his characters (prominantly in the excellent Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, the equally excellent though very different Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, and the frothy rom-com Yes, Boss).

I do wonder, watching this movie again, what happens to OK's (the reincarnated Om Prakash Makhija) relationship to his father, Rajesh Kapoor, after he realizes who he was and goes back to Om's mother.

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About Me

I used to teach Russian and Ukrainian, and some basic English, to civil servants. Now I teach Russian at a local continued-learning institute. I dabble in Gaelic and Welsh. I'm am amateur photographer and I love birding (in a small way). I'm a Progressive, and a Freethinker, and I know Evolution is a fact - that's FCD, Friend of Charles Darwin (look down the sidebar). I read a lot, and follow women's college basketball. Also I love astronomy, though I'm a rank amateur at it. Most of all, I like living in the reality-based community...

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You cannot leave. You cannot drop the armor now. Why? Because you are needed, more than ever. You are mandatory to keep the energy flowing, the karmic vibrator buzzing, to keep the progressive and lucid half of the nation breathing and healthy and awake and ever reaching out to the half that's wallowing in fear and violence and homophobia and sexual dread, hoping to find harmony instead of cacophony, common ground instead of civil war, some sort of a shared love of a country so messy and internationally disrespected and openly confused its own president can't even speak the language.

After all, you don't hand over all your children the first time the flying monkeys bang on your door...

It's far from over. The tunnel is just a little darker -- and longer -- than we imagined.
Mark Morford